Mega Lo Mart
Mega Lo Mart is a department store in King of the Hill. It shares many qualities of Walmart, of which it is a parody. Its spokesperson is Chuck Mangione, who's a flugelhorn player. It was believed that Mega Lo Mart had a rat problem, until Dale was hired to exterminate the rats. He discovered that Chuck Mangione was the real culprit, having fed off of the products at the store. As depicted in the Season 2 cliffhanger finale, the presence of the Arlen Mega Lo Mart has a disastrous effect on local small businesses such as Strickland Propane and Layaway Ray's Bait N' Tackle. Background In the Pilot episode, Hank visits the Mega Lo Mart looking for the hardware department so he can buy a tap and die and WD40. He quickly grows frustrated that Buckley is unable to help him. Hank's angry confrontation is seen by locals who then begin to spread rumors that Hank may be abusive to his son, Bobby, which eventually makes its way to Arlen County Child Protective Services. The Mega Lo Mart employees are mostly unhelpful, lazy teenagers. The store ran many local merchants out of business; the experienced businessowners were forced to accept low-level positions at the store. The teenage employees enjoyed their positions and used them to force the former merchants to wear trainee badges, despite decades worth of experience and would blatantly ignore safety advice, seen when Buckley continues to put stress on the Propane valve against Hank's advice, which would ultimately lead to his demise. The Mega Lo Mart corporate spokesperson is musician Chuck Mangione, who lives in the store and whose hit song "Feels So Good" serves as its corporate slogan. The Mega Lo Mart jingle, as heard in a television advertisement in an early episode, says "At Mega Lo Mart, you're shopping for the rest of your life." The jingle is not connected to, or performed, by Chuck Mangione. In the episode Propane Boom, the Arlen Mega Lo Mart exploded just as Chuck Mangione was beginning to perform outside the store. Hank began working at the Mega Lo Mart after the chain began offering big propane discounts, which had driven Strickland Propane out of Arlen. Upon being hired and expressing his frustration with other former small business owners (also now working at the Mega Lo Mart), Hank and a few others planned to disrupt the Mangione concert with kazoos in protest of the destructive effect of the Mega Lo Mart on small town businesses. The propane explosion occurred before the plan could be fully carried out (as Hank was ready to use his "ultimate weapon", an air horn). The accident was actually caused by a propane tank activated carelessly by Buckley, Luanne Platter's then-boyfriend and Hank's manager, a result of Buckley's refusing to listen to Hank's safety advice of not dragging propane tanks across the floor by the handle (Ironically, however, due to his known hatred of the Mega Lo Mart, everyone seemed to believe Hank had caused the explosion, though only temporarily). Since any potential customers and most of the staff were at the concert outside, Buckley was the only casualty, although Luanne, Hank, and Chuck Mangione were slightly singed. Luanne also lost all of her hair (which gradually grew back) as a result of the explosion. Since the Mega-Lo-Mart decided to not stock propane upon re-opening (after reconstruction) due to this catastrophe, the Arlen branch of Strickland Propane reopened shortly after these events, and Hank resumed his assistant manager position there. Ever since the explosion, Mega Lo Mart became a big client for Strickland Propane as seen in the Episode, Megalo Dale. Mega Lo Land Mega Lo Land is an adjacent section of Mega Lo Mart and a children's play area. In The Son That Got Away, Bobby, Connie and Joseph, upset with how their parents treat them, ride off on their bikes, looking to have some fun. Meanwhile, Hank, Kahn and Dale search frantically around Arlen for their kids, who unbeknownst to them, have decided to explore The Caves. Hank, Kahn and Dale check Mega Lo Land for the kids, but to no avail. The children's play area makes another brief appearance in Megalo Dale, where it's revealed that a mongoose that Dale let loose in the store (in an attempt to flush out Chuck Mangione) has made its home in the ball pit. Mega Lo Care Mega Lo Care is an adjacent section of Mega Lo Mart and a medical emergency facility as well as clinic. In The Son That Got Away, Eustice and Randy are seen leaving the Mega Lo Care, before being approached by Hank, who asks Randy if he's seen Bobby, Connie and Joseph. Randy was receiving treatment inside Mega Lo Care due to an incident that occurred earlier, which resulted in a head injury. The clinic makes a brief appearance in Megalo Dale where an elderly women is shown having her blood pressure taken while Dale and the store manager have a conversation. Later in the episode, Hank, Bill and Boomhauer show up at the store to assist Dale who's spending the night inside (and to keep him from making a mess of things) for an extermination job. While inside, Bill decides to test his blood pressure. In the episode Bill, Bulk and the Body Buddies, Bill is required to pass his army physical, and is later shown at the clinic having an examination where he is instructed by a doctor to exercise. In the episode Stressed for Success, Bobby faints due to severe stress while at the Mega Lo Mart and is diagnosed by a doctor at the clinic. In the episode Manger Baby Einstein, using The Manger Babies, Luanne is at the clinic cheering up children that are crying due to having flu shots. Trivia *This incident happened in the midst of Fox's decision to move the show to California, which turned out to be a practical joke stemming from The X-Files' decision to move production from Vancouver to Los Angeles. *It is supposedly based on Wal-Mart and Home Depot. It is portrayed as the archetypical American big box store chain, in the vein of real-world corporate chain stores such as Wal-Mart, or K-Mart. The name itself is a play on "Mega Low" (as in prices, the portrayal of which was presumably the corporation's intent), and the Greek root "megalo-" meaning "large" or "grandiose" (often associated with the word "megalomania," or having delusions of grandeur). *In early seasons, Hank hated Mega Lo Mart for the rudeness and general unhelpfulness of the staff and putting some local small businesses out of business but in later seasons, Hank grew to tolerate the store when they hired Strickland Propane to be the propane supplier. He also admitted to the manager that he liked being able to buy his jeans and hammers in the same place since he could see how they looked together. *Ray of Layaway Ray's Bait N' Tackle claimed the new Mega Lo Mart was killing any business he had left, causing him to shut down. *The Arlen Strickland Propane temporarily shut down as a result of the Mega Lo Mart being built. Category:Places Category:Businesses